French Girls Names

[oliviasarah]

I think the majority have been mentioned, but these are a few names of some French girls I know (mostly in their teen years. I also met the majority of them on a recent French Exchange to Provence)

Maryne (mah-REEN)
Josephine
Juliette
Manon
Lea (Lay-uh)
Sixtine
Orianne
Lena
Madeleine
Sherynn
Romane
Maelle
Julia

Names of some older French women, which are likely to sound dated in France are -

Nadine
Bridgette
Pascale

[thetxbelle]

I have a Franco-American family and we go back every year, give me some guidelines do you want popular names, classic names, names that mean something specific, etc and I will try to come up with some lists for you.


@oliviasarah, can I ask how old the Sixtine you met was? I love that this name has made a comeback! I cant see ever using it but I love Anne-Sixtine!

[ellie532]

I only like Emilie from your list. I love Eloise and Odette.

[diana_m]

Oooh! French names are so lovely. I think the only trick is to find one that is easily pronounced. One of my favorite French names is Aurelie, but I fear that it'd be pronounced in the US like "orally." Eek!

I agree with many of the names already mentioned: Genevieve, Madeleine, and Nathalie are three of my favorite French names.

I'm not French, so I could be wrong about this, but I think Manon is the name of a French rap group. It's a nice sounding name, but the rap connection might keep me from using it.

Some other interesting French names:
Ponette
Victoire
Jeanne
Emmanuelle
Virginie (French version of Virginia)
Allesia
Luce/Lucie

[melissa2]

I quite like "Aurélie" in French but in American English it's going to be uncomfortably close to "orally." (Pardon my blush.) Anais (ann-ah-EES) is lovely, as is Mailys (my-ee-LEES). I would assume the pronunciation of Aléa is (ah-lay-AH) but I've never heard it so I can't be sure. Léa (lay-ah) is quite commonplace, though.

There are lots of names which sound far lovelier in French than in English-- Inès (ee-NESS), Agnès (ahn-YES) and Diane (dee-AHN) spring to mind.

[whirligig]

To thtxbelle: Thank you soooooo much I like quite unusual but cool sounding names. Check my siignature out for more name style guidelines. But as its French names it doesn't really matter.

[sugarfoot]

I have seen/heard of a few French babies named Louise/Luisa and Manon. So I guess those are quite popular.

[leneke]

Umh. Frostine is not trendy in France. I've never met any girl with that name and I've never heart anyone mentioning that name neither. I would laugh hard if ever I met a girl named Frostine!
Anais is pronounced Anuh-ees (Same as Ana + ees)

Girls from my age (early 20) are named Alexandra, Hélène, Marine, Charlotte, Marion, Sophie, Emilie, Lisa (Leeza), Stephanie, Elise, Léa, Lucie, Sarah, Ségolène, Mathilde, Noémie, Delphine, Aurélie, Charline (Sharleen), Charlène (Shar-layne), Julie, Manon, Marlène, Florine, Mélanie, Eline, Elisa, Adeline, Clara, Clémentine, Samantha, Caroline, Laura, Morgane, Marie, Jade, Camille, Pauline, Julia, Justine, Laurianne. That is all what I can think of.
Anne + ??? (Anne-Sophie, Anne-Caroline, Anne-Julie ...) was trendy at some point.

In upper-class area's, Isabelle, Philippine, Sixtine, Pénèlope, Constance, Irène, Jeanne, Eponine, Paola was trendy in the 1990's (ans most of them are still trendy)

All the Nathalie, Sabine, Emmanuelle, Nadine, Laurence, Brigitte's... are between 30 and 45.

[vandychick]

My husband and his family are Francophone, in Canada. Some of these have been mentioned, but here are some girls names of relatives, classmates and neighbors.

Madeleine (our daughter)
Noemie
Audrey (O-drey)
Ariane
Mireille (Meer-ay)--I find this to be very tricky in the US. Not a very English-friendly spelling.
Lucie
Annabelle
Cecile
Coralie
Charlotte
Cassandra (for some reason this is currently popular in Quebec, though not traditionally French)
Jeanne d'Arc (if you are looking for something really unusual--my husband's aunt's name)
Juliette

I am sure I will think of more...

[whirligig]

Thanks Everyone